


"All That Glisters..."

by MedieavalBeabe



Category: Tom Hiddleston RPF
Genre: Gen, None - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-23
Updated: 2014-08-23
Packaged: 2018-02-14 10:05:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2187657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MedieavalBeabe/pseuds/MedieavalBeabe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Our Female OC meets a certain actor in a theatre shop in Stratford and they have a conversation about their favourite shared subject - Shakespeare!</p>
            </blockquote>





	"All That Glisters..."

**Author's Note:**

> Ok, writing this was a lot harder than I originally anticipated (like most things in life it seemed like a good idea at the time!) so don't expect any more of these RPFs from me! Ever! Anyway, it's just a cute bit of fluff based on a fantasy I have about meeting any of my favourite Shakespeare actors - enjoy! 
> 
> (This work is dedicated to all Shakespearean actors as well as my deep-set love for Manga Shakespeare!)

As I ran my fingers along the titles on the shelf, I smiled at the thought that people still performed these plays, after nearly five hundred years of them being written. In a class of about thirty students in my Performing Arts class in college, I’d been the only one who actually liked, and probably the only one who even understood, Shakespeare’s writing. Everyone else was always like “Why can’t he write in English?” which would always prompt an angry response of “He did! Just because you’re too thick to understand it!” or words to that effect, from me. As an avid Shakespeare fan (after all I’d been hooked on his plays since the age of eleven) I always felt the need to leap to his defence whenever anyone insulted him, or worse, tried to say he hadn’t written his own plays.

 

Though, thankfully, a lot of people had stopped questioning that recently when Stephen Fry had answered the question “Did Shakespeare really write his own plays?” with the response “Yes. No, actually, scratch that – Fuck Yes!” And if you couldn’t trust Stephen Fry’s judgement then whose could you trust?

 

Grinning to myself at the memory, I ran my eyes over the Manga Shakespeare books, trying to remember which ones I already had. Each time I visited the RSC Theatre in Stratford, I bought a new one. The trouble was I had so many that I couldn’t remember which ones I needed.

 

“Do I have Macbeth?” I wondered aloud as I picked it off the shelf, and then immediately clapped a hand over my mouth with an exclamation of “Shi-it!” After all, any true Shakespeare fan knows that you’re not meant to say “Macbeth” in a theatre unless you’re performing it, otherwise you’ll bring bad luck on all the actors. “Sorry, mate,” I muttered to the nearby bust of the Bard as I struggled to remember what it is you’re meant to say to reverse the curse. “The Merchant of Venice” is supposed to be a luck play, so I tried to remember some lines from it.

 

“If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? Aw, bugger it!” I sighed. “That’s probably not helping!” I tried to think of another quote that might be more appropriate, although I haven’t seen Merchant in years so I struggled, eventually landing on one from a book on Shakespeare in Art back at home. “All that glisters is not gold. Often have you heard that told. Many a man hath his life sold but my outside to behold: gilded tombs do worms enfold-”

 

I was cut off by two things; the first being my own memory of what came after the “worms” line, and the second being someone close by laughing. Blushing at having been caught quoting Shakespeare out loud, I quickly shoved Macbeth back on the shelf and picked up Julius Caesar instead, trying to ignore the fact that I was now being laughed at by a complete stranger.

 

“You don’t really believe you’ll cause them bad luck, do you?” a voice said.

 

Not looking up from my Manga, I flicked my hair out of my eyes and replied, coolly, “Anyone who’s a big a fan of Shakespeare as I am doesn’t go taking chances in that department.”

 

“Well, if I fall flat on my face tonight, I’ll blame you,” he replied.

 

With a frown I glanced at him – and then immediately wished I hadn’t as I felt my blush deepening.

 

_Shit! I just made a complete fool of myself in front of Tom Hiddleston!_

 

“I didn’t know you were in Hamlet,” I stammered, almost dropping the Manga as I shoved it back on the shelf.

 

He smiled, putting me more at ease in his presence. “Title role, actually. First time playing it.”

 

“Congratulations,” I said, noticing then that he was holding a copy of Antony Sher’s “Beside Myself” which I just happened to own a copy of too, being a big fan of his and all. It’s the book that most up-and-coming Shakespeare actors read when starting a new production. Unable to resist, I added, with a grin “Do you think you can live up to Laurence Olivier?”

 

He laughed. “I don’t think anyone can live up to Laurence Olivier! But I’ll do my best.”

 

_Holy shit; you’re having a conversation with him now? Ok, be cool._

 

Taking a deep breath, I added “By the way, loved you in Henry IV Part 2. I mean, everyone else was great too, but, you know, you were the main character really.”

 

He glanced at me. “You only saw Part 2?”

 

I felt the need to elaborate. “Well, you see, last year my Mum and I saw it here on Shakespeare’s birthday; the one with Antony Sher as Falstaff, ‘cause it was the only one they had tickets available for and we always said we’d come to see a play here on his birthday, didn’t matter what it was, so...yeah, saw it, loved it and then when I got the Hollow Crown for my birthday, it was the first I watched. Well, actually, it’s the only one I’ve watched so far.”

 

He laughed again. “Well, thanks. I had a lot of fun doing that one.”

 

I smiled. “Have you had fun with this one?”

 

“Surprisingly; it being a tragedy and everything.”

 

“Actually I always think there are funnier lines in those than in the comedies.”

 

“You could be right there.”

 

“Well, you get more comical characters in the tragedies; you know, the Fool in King Lear, the Clown in Othello-”

 

“The Porter in “the Scottish play?” he teased.

 

I tried not to laugh. “Look, if a stage light falls on you backstage or something, don’t blame me.”

 

“I _will_ blame you,” he countered. “You said it.”

 

“Yeah, and then I reversed it,” I insisted, still trying not to laugh.

 

He smiled. “I always thought you had to turn around three times and recite a line from a play to reverse it.”

 

“Can’t do that with this rucksack,” I said. “Not in this place, anyway.”

 

That was when my phone promptly went off and I sighed, seeing it was Kate texting me.

 

“Where are you?” the message read.

 

“Five already?” I sighed, pocketing it. “I forgot we were supposed to meet at The Garrick.”

 

He smiled. “Time flies when you’re having fun.”

 

“Mm,” I agreed, and then, making a snap decision, quickly grabbed a Manga Henry V off the shelf. “Anyway, break a leg and all. We’ll be up in the balcony seats.”

 

“I’ll keep an eye out,” he promised as I turned and hurried up to the counter, reeling off a quick “You’ll never believe who I just met” text back to Kate in the process. As the woman on the till handed the book back to me, a sudden thought struck me and I turned back to him.

 

“I don’t suppose you’d sign it for me, would you?”


End file.
